Established in 2000 following studies by the Cleveland and Mt. Sinai foundations citing inadequate autism services in the Cleveland area, the Monarch School has quickly become a nationally recognized leader in autism treatment.

Construction of a new, state-of-the-art home for the Monarch School was completed in 2006. One of the only facilities of its kind in the nation, the 22,000 square foot building is tailored to meet the specific educational, environmental and emotional needs of autistic children.

The new Monarch School doubles the school's capacity from 28 to 56 students and is designed to maximize the benefits of assistive technology and the Internet for children with autism.

Ohio's first chartered non-public school for autism, Monarch provides an ideal special education experience where even those most severely afflicted can learn, grow and thrive.

Monarch’s dynamic, visual-based and technology-enhanced curriculum is designed to tap each student’s unique, hidden capacity to learn and communicate.

Monarch students receive highly individualized, one-on-one and small group instruction complemented by a variety of intensive, proven interventions including music, art, speech, occupational and sensory integration therapies.

Each day at Monarch is filled with small successes; “teachable moments” that cumulatively and powerfully transform young lives. The school’s vibrant, nurturing environment recognizes and respects individual learning styles and helps students communicate more effectively, relate successfully and manage their own behaviors.

Ultimately, Monarch helps children with autism find their own voice and share the joy and fulfillment of communication and social relationships.

The Monarch Boarding Academy
The Boarding Academy is a unique residential program extension of Monarch School and the tenets of the Monarch Model in a warm and welcoming home setting. Students live together with professional staff members in an environment specifically designed to enhance social, behavioral, communicative, functional and academic growth.

Monarch Preschool
For children from three to six years old diagnosed with autism, the Preschool Program provides resultsoriented, individualized half-day classes in a carefully created, secure and comfortable environment. The curriculum focuses on natural environment, speech and occupational therapy, structured free play, guided independent play, and academic readiness skills to prepare these children for their primary school years.

Monarch Early Childhood Intervention
Intensive early intervention, before the age of three, is key in helping children with autism lead happy, rewarding lives. Monarch’s unique program is conducted in the familiar surroundings of the child’s home environment and tailored to achieve maximum interaction with his or her family. The curriculum can include speech and occupational therapy, fine motor skills development, structured free play, guided independent play, academics, music and/or art.

Monarch Summer Camp
Designed for children with autism from ages six through 13, the Summer Camp emphasizes building social and communication skills, gaining self-confidence and creating lasting friendships in a fun-filled experience. Activities coordinate with the campers’ individualized educational programs, a low counselor-to-camper ratio is ensured, and all staff is professionally trained teachers, speech therapists, music and art therapists and assistants.

The Monarch Model
The Monarch Model leverages autistic children’s strong visual processing and residual spoken language abilities to support communication, comprehension, language development, social skills and academic achievement.

It has been developed and refined since 2004 by Monarch School staff in close partnership with a distinguished team of researchers and clinicians from Harvard Medical School, Children’s Hospital Boston and Massachusetts General Hospital, renowned for the development of technology-driven interventions that facilitate visual learning for children with autism.

The Monarch Model is predicated on the careful, systematic, individualized introduction of language concepts accompanied by visual supports to help children with autism develop modes of communication - spoken, visual or written - that enable them to achieve their maximum potential as individuals and members of the community.

The Monarch Model includes five critical elements:

1. Assessment
2. Visual supports
3. Natural language curriculum
4. Academic curriculum
5. Outcome evaluation

Importantly, the Monarch Model is philosophically neutral and can be used to complement and enhance the most effective and widely used techniques for treating individuals on the autism spectrum (i.e. ABA, TEACCH, Floor Time). Finally, the Monarch Model is concept-driven to ensure learning is generalized to multiple contexts (school, home, community).

A Quantum Leap Forward: The Visual Language Learning Solution
The next critical phase in the full development of the Monarch Model, the Visual Language Learning Solution (VLLS), promises to revolutionize the education children on the autism spectrum.

The VLLS employs state-of-the art technology to translate the Monarch Model into the first interactive, Web based visual lesson creation and delivery system for both classroom and practical instruction of individuals with autism. This comprehensive suite of educational software applications and advanced visual tools will enable children, teachers and parents to collaborate in unique learning and communication processes using computers and a rich library of visual-based lessons templates.

In 2007, VLLS will be tested at Monarch and several Cleveland-area public schools, where it will be rigorously and continuously evaluated and refined. In late 2007 it will catalog and standardize the Monarch Model and its associated visual resources to facilitate its potential for broad dissemination.

The Monarch School is accredited by The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) and the Council on Accreditation of Services for Families and Children, and subscribes and adheres to the standards created by The National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council for educating children with autism.